The meditations of Genius.--A work on the Art of Meditation not yet produced.--Predisposing the mind.--Imagination awakens imagination. --Generating feelings by music.--Slight habits.--Darkness and silence, by suspending the exercise of our senses, increase the vivacity of our conceptions.--The arts of memory.--Memory the foundation of genius.--Inventions by several to preserve their own moral and literary character.--And to assist their studies.--The meditations of genius depend on habit.--Of the night-time.--A day of meditation should precede a day of composition.--Works of magnitude from slight conceptions.--Of thoughts never written.--The art of meditation exercised at all hours and places.--Continuity of attention the source of philosophical discoveries. --Stillness of meditation the first state of existence in genius. 116 CHAPTER XII. The enthusiasm of genius.--A state of mind resembling a waking dream distinct from reverie.--The ideal presence distinguished from the real presence.--The senses are really affected in the ideal world, proved by a variety of instances.--Of the rapture or sensation of deep study in art, science, and literature. --Of perturbed feelings, in delirium.--In extreme endurance of attention.--And in visionary illusions.--Enthusiasts in literature and art.--Of their self-immolations. 136 CHAPTER XIII. Of the jealousy of genius.--Jealousy often proportioned to the degree of genius.--A perpetual fever among authors and artists. --Instances of its incredible excess among brothers and benefactors.--Of a peculiar species, where the fever consumes the sufferer without its malignancy. 154 CHAPTER XIV. Want of mutual esteem among men of genius often originates in a deficiency of analogous ideas.--It is not always envy or jealousy which induces men of genius to undervalue each other. 159 CHAPTER XV. Self-praise of genius.--The love of praise instinctive in the nature of genius.--A high opinion of themselves necessary for their great designs.--The ancients openly claimed their own praise.--And several moderns.--An author knows more of his merits than his readers.--And less of his defects.--Authors versatile in their admiration and their malignity. 162 CHAPTER XVI. The domestic life of genius.--Defects of great compositions attributed to domestic infelicities.--The home of the literary character should be the abode of repose and silence.--Of the father.--Of the mother.--Of family genius.--Men of genius not more respected than other men in their domestic circle.--The cultivators of science and art do not meet on equal terms with others, in domestic life.--Their neglect of those around them. --Often accused of imaginary crimes. 173 CHAPTER XVII.